


Preparing For a Daring Escape

by Baron_Esper



Category: Fallen London | Echo Bazaar, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Another bizarre crossover, But I hope the effort proves respectable, F/M, I dread the response, My crossover addiction continues to dominate my life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-04
Updated: 2020-03-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:00:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23011390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Baron_Esper/pseuds/Baron_Esper
Summary: Ochako Uraraka comes to London to get rich, but it's not quite as simple as she thinks.
Relationships: Midoriya Izuku/Uraraka Ochako
Comments: 1
Kudos: 15





	Preparing For a Daring Escape

**Author's Note:**

> So I was originally working on this as a short little thing for Valentine's Day. It is now March. This fic is driving me insane.
> 
> Please accept this first half for consideration, and the second half will come.... later.

Ochako thought that she was dreaming as she walked through a beautiful, shimmering palace in a gorgeous amber colored ballgown, the likes of which she had never even imagined she could wear. It seemed to shine in the light the candles that lit the hall, as though it were glowing. Atop her head sat a brilliant tiara studded with green stones that made her look, and feel, like a princess. And who knows? If she could find a good match here at this mysterious prince's ball, her family will be set for life!

Gathering her skirts, she eagerly made her way to a grand ballroom, where the guests were mingling. She arrived fashionably late, and many eligible gentlemen would be eager to make introductions and dance with her. She was also eager to meet with the host of this little gala. She was a mite nervous about doing so, as not much was known about this prince from another land, beyond his reputation of being somewhat... rapacious. People at court like to whisper about how he just _devours_ young, unattended ladies. Even so, she felt she knew how to handle herself against pushy, self-important men should it come to that. Ochako Uraraka was not the kind of girl to just get eaten up, after all!

Ochako spent time making polite chatter with various socialites, but before much time passed footman came to announce the arrival of their host, the Rapacious Prince. All the guests, Ochako included, eagerly looked up to watch as the doors opened...only for a tiger to slowly pad its way into the hall. Her heart pounded in her chest as she observed the dangerous, wild animal before her slowly make its way around the room, but to her surprise she seemed to be the only one anxious about it. The servants bowed as it passed, the guests spoke to it pleasantly. Could this animal somehow be the host of this ball? 

She peered closer to the beast and saw that the tiger was... decorated. It wore red pince-nez glasses on the end of its nose, and had golden epaulets where shoulders would be on a human. At the very least, it dressed like it was royalty. Then she saw the tiger reach a paw up to a glass of brandy carried on one of the serving trays and drink it down, even placing the glass back on the tray! How did it even do that? Could this really be the Rapacious Prince of rumor? If so, then those rumors should probably be... re-contextualized. 'Devouring' young ladies, indeed.

The tiger glanced her way and she averted her eyes with a nervous squeak. Well, this is it, then. She dared look a Tiger-Prince in the eye without permission and now she was going to be eaten alive for the disrespect. Thankfully the prince did not seem to be offended; on the contrary, he let loose a light chuff that may have been interpreted as a low chuckle before padding his way over to her. Ochako gave a shaking curtsy, and the tiger bowed his head in turn. "It is my pleasure to meet you, Ochako Uraraka. Please, do not be nervous. You are my guest here, after all, newly arrived in my domain. It would not do to allow harm to come to one so fresh-faced and innocent." 

The Rapacious Prince's eyes glinted with something even more predatory than a tiger should possess. "Would you do me the honor of a dance?" Ochako gulped, but before she could reply, a hand was suddenly at her shoulder and she was slightly tugged away from the Prince.

"I do apologize, Your Highness, but the lady has already promised her first dance to me." The one speaking was a young man about her age, with untamed dark green hair that looked like a bush was growing on his head. He was wearing a frock coat so dark it appeared to absorb the light around it. The effect really was quite striking, especially against his green eyes, so bright it was like they were glowing. "Which is just as well, as it is the host that must declare the dancing begun for the evening, and must oversee the couples as they do. You would be asking the lady to sit out of the very first dance of the very first society ball she has ever been to! Be kind, Your Highness." Though he spoke his words resolutely, she couldn't help but detect a slight tremor to his voice that betrayed his nerves at talking back to either a tiger, a prince, a prince among tigers, or a tiger among princes. Possibly all at once.

If this turn of events bothered the prince, he did not show it. He slowly padded his way through the crowd to a heavily carpeted and cushioned dais meant for him to comfortably lie down while he announced the first dance of the evening. Once he was out of earshot, the man with the bright green eyes sighed in relief. "Oh, thank God. I didn't know if that would be enough to dissuade him. Are you okay, miss?"

"I am, yes. Thank you for that. I wouldn't even know how to _begin_ to dance with a tiger." The two of them shared a laugh, and soon they took to the floor, dancing away. She looked up into his eyes and smiled brightly. "Might I know the name of my savior, good sir?"

"Izuku Midoriya. A pleasure to make your acquaintance, miss...?"

"Ochako Uraraka. Charmed."

The two danced together, talking all the while, and when the dance had ended the two of them decided to continue their conversation rather than part. It flowed so easily between them, as if they had known each other all their lives. This continued on through all the events of the ball, and before either of them knew it the last dance of the evening was upon them. Stunned at how quickly the evening had passed, Ochako knew she should have been disappointed for not taking the opportunity to make the acquaintance of more eligible gentlemen than just Izuku, yet she could not help but be satisfied with that. He seemed to have enough money to make a desirable match for her family, yet was very much the kind of man she could see herself easily falling in love with. Her parents were sure to approve.

She had to know if he was interested. As the last dance of the evening had begun and the guests took their places, Izuku placed his hand upon her shoulder as he had before, in the style of a gentleman. Yet Ochako boldly took that hand and gently moved it to her hip. Scandalous. Izuku's eyebrows rose so high they almost vanished into his hair, blushing like mad, yet he did not pull his hand back up to the less intimate position. She giggled at his expression, blushing a little herself.

"I think you could be good for me, Mr. Midoriya."

"V...very forward of you, Miss Uraraka." He was sweating now, and his eyes flitted all over the ballroom.

"Do you dislike forward ladies, Mr. Midoriya?" She blinked at him, head tilted and eyes wide and innocent.

"I c-cannot say whether I do or don't, but I can d-definitely say that I do not dislike you. On the contrary." His breathing picked up in speed and his words came tumbling out of his mouth faster than he could put them together into sentences, leaving Ochako to make do with what came out. She found it endearing. Cute, even.

"That is good to hear. I was hoping to take the chance to further our acquaintance after the ball." 

Unexpectedly, his face grew rather sad. "...is something the matter, Mr. Midoriya?"

He looked away from her, staring into the corner of the ballroom. "Oh, no, just... I would really like that, but I think that might be difficult."

"Why ever should it be so difficult for you? Are you perhaps a tiger yourself, made human for this one night?" She smiled up at him to let him know that she was joking, and he did smile, but it did not stick. She frowned. Had she made some mistake somewhere? He sighed, then finally looked her full on, eyes shining with some unknown emotion. Sympathy? Frustration? Determination? 

"Because this is a dream, Ochako. And you're about to wake up."

....eh?

Ochako woke up with a start, nearly falling out of the cheap cot in her cell. It's dark, as dark as it's been since she was thrown in here. The mask on her face itched like mad, but she knew better than to try and remove it. The prisoners are meant to wear these identity-obliterating satin masks, which were better maintained than the bundle of rags that she was in. Anyone who dares bare their face in this place gets dragged off by the eternally silent gaolers that ran this place. She didn't know what happened to those people, and she would prefer it not happen to her, either. 

She gingerly climbed out of her bed. The manacles permanently locked around her hands and feet made movement difficult as she made her way to the window of her cell. Her sole pleasure in this place: the view of the city down below.

London.

The Stolen City.

==========================================================================================

It happened in 1868, 30 years ago. Before she was born. The newspapers at the time proclaimed that London was "stolen by bats." The entire city was just removed from the earth, leaving no trace left on the surface. All that remained was an enormous hole. Yet despite all that, the city was not destroyed. Merely moved.

Somehow, despite being pulled underground so suddenly and violently, London survived and continued to have relations with the rest of the world, however limited. There were wild rumors of vast treasures, fantastical creatures, anything from London falling into Hell to the secret of immortality being discovered there. It's definitely difficult to know what to believe, but rumors have to have a source, and if there was even a tenth of the kinds of treasure rumored to exist in London, she would do anything to get it.

Ochako's family was poor, and had been since she was born. It was a struggle just to survive. Her parents did everything they could to make sure their daughter never missed a meal and had a roof over her head, but it was definitely a strain. As she grew up, she became more aware of how difficult life was for them, and she wanted to help out her parents in whatever ways she could. She attempted to find honest work to support her family, but it was rough going, and she occasionally had to resort to stealing to get the money her family needed to survive.

But this couldn't last forever. Eventually she would get caught, and once that happened it was over. There was no way she could do anything for her parents from jail, after all! So, she decided to take a gamble and bet it all on London. She snuck onto a ship bound for London, using the only safe passage beneath the surface of the earth. There was no way she could realistically afford passage, after all, but she was determined. No matter the dangers present in London, the rewards were surely worth the risk if she could get the kind of fortune that could give her parent a better life.

She just... kind of expected to at least make it past the docks, though.

The moment she attempted to leave the ship and make her way through the dockyards, she was suddenly whacked in the back of the head. She was knocked out immediately. When she wokd up, she had manacles on her arms and legs and she was being dragged into a prison cell, which was housed within an enormous stalactite that hung over London. A truly dizzying height. And so Ochako was trapped here in this prison for days on end, her only company being the other prisoners and the voiceless, masked gaolers that kept them all in line. No idea when she would ever stand in court, or even if she would stand in court at all. For all she knew, she would just be left to rot here forever, which she absolutely refused to accept. But for now, there was nothing she could do.

It would be another few days after her bizarre dream when she would get her chance.

==========================================================================================

The door to the cell block burst open suddenly, and a gaoler stumbled inside, struggling to keep a new prisoner in his grip. The ferocity of the prisoner's resistance caused the gaoler to crash into the wall, trying their damndest to keep this person in their grip. Ochako cautiously approached the front of her cell, hoping against hope that she might be able to grab the keys off of him, and prayed for a chance. The gaoler stumbled towards her cell, falling all over the place as the prisoner yanked them around. Eventually they both fell into the far wall across from her cell, and the prisoner planted their feet against the wall and pushed hard, slamming the gaoler into her cell. A chance! She pulled the gaoler's cudgel from their belt stealthily, but could not find a key anywhere she could grab. Damn. 

The gaoler eventually regained control, grabbing the prisoner by the back of their neck and opening up her cell door with the key she had missed. Ochako scrambled away as the prisoner was thrown in with great force before the door was slammed shut and locked again, the gaoler plainly irritated as they stomped off. Gingerly, Ochako approached the body slumped against the wall. 

Now that she could get a better look at him in the faint light, Ochako could see that the new prisoner was a man. He wore the same black satin mask that covered the upper half of his face. His hair was dark, though she couldn't make out what color, and it was all over the place. His body was covered by a black, shabby cloak, obscuring his body other than his arms and legs. He wore scuffed black boots and a pair of green fingerless gloves, the kind a cutpurse or a cracksman might wear. He was slumped against the wall, unconscious. Ochako had no idea what kind of person this was, but she had to admire the spirit of anyone who would fight that hard to try and escape. 

He began to stir, and she scooted back slightly, one hand grabbing the stolen cudgel. She admired his spirit, sure, but there was no need to be reckless. He groaned and shifted, then slowly lifted up his head to look at Ochako. "...hello. Are you okay?"

"Me?! Forget me, what about you? Look, you're bleeding!" It was true, blood was beginning to drip down his forehead from underneath his forest of dark hair. He reached a hand up and felt for it, confirming that it was indeed blood, wincing as he sat up.

"It... probably looks worse than it is, haha." He attempted to get up, then fell back to the ground hissing in pain and clutching his right arm. "M...maybe not. Ow."

Ochako didn't know this man. She had no reason to care about him, he could have been a deranged murderer for all she knew. But that's not what she was concerned with. All she could see in front of her was someone in pain, and responded the only way her kind heart would allow. "Let me help!"

The prisoner looked surprised for a moment at her offer, but then his face lit up into a smile. "Thank you. I would really appreciate that."

She got him to remove his cloak and shirt, to their mutual embarrassment ("Relax, Ochako, just breathe. It's fine, this is fine." "D-did you say something?" "NOTHING! Nothing at all!"), and examined the damage. The main area of injury was his back, heavily bruised all over. It was no wonder he couldn't get up on his own, bruising like that would probably make it excruciatingly painful. The other area of injury was his arm. While it thankfully wasn't broken, the muscle was absolutely sprained. He wouldn't be doing anything on his own for a while. Only one thing for it. She began to tear the most substantial parts of the rags she was wearing, her sleeves, to form tight bandages for his arm. His back was absolutely a lost cause for the time being unless she wanted to go shirtless ('Absolutely not!' Her face erupts even at the idea of it.), so she did her best to tend to his arm. Even though they both wore masks on their upper face, she could swear the dark-haired man was blushing as much as she was.

Thankfully the head wound was shallow, so that didn't take much effort to bandage up. His dark curls seemed fleetingly familiar to Ochako as she wrapped his head up in the cleanest part of her shirt sleeve, but she shrugged it off. Lots of people with dark hair. He must just remind her of someone she met in passing.

"Okay, I think that's everything I can do. Your back is in bad shape, though. You're going to need to get some bed rest before moving anywhere."

"Yeah, I figured. Thanks. I'm really grateful for the help." The prisoner hissed in pain as Ochako helped him get up and over to the other cot in the cell so that he could lay down properly. "You seem... really kind. How did someone like you end up here?"

Ochako looked away. "...I got caught." She explained her circumstances, sneaking onto a ship, getting nabbed at the docks before she could even see who was after her, and just being shoved in here with no explanation and no idea how long she would even be imprisoned for.

The prisoner sighed. "That sounds terrible. If it's any consolation, though, it sounds like you didn't get grabbed by the constables." 

Her eyes widened in astonishment. "Does that mean this isn't a real prison? Just a big, dank pit people get spirited away too?" If that was true, there really would be no hope of getting out.

"Well, I'd argue that's the definition of a prison, but no. We're definitely in New Newgate Prison. I think what happened was that you were attacked by the Masters' enforcers." He sighed. "They're called the Neddy Men, and they're really nasty. Aggressive, too. They probably saw you sneaking around at the docks and they just assumed you were some kind of hostile agent. A striker, perhaps, or an anarchist. Maybe a spy. They don't really think too hard about these sorts of things, so that would be all it would take for one of them to bash you over the head with a stick and drag you to one of the Masters. Probably Mr. Fires, he's kind of a bastard that way. From there, he probably sent you on up here."

Well, that wasn't what she was expecting to hear. "Mr. Fires? Masters? Who are you talking about?"

"It's... hard to explain. I don't want to overwhelm you with information." The prisoner stared at the ceiling in contemplation for a moment before continuing. "For now, just know that there are several important figures that regulate trade here in London, and these figures are known as the Masters of the Bazaar. There's a lot of other weirdness about them and things that don't really make much sense, but that's not what's important here. The main thing I wanted to tell you is that, since you got dragged here by the Neddies and jailed by a Master without any kind of trial, ironically that means you won't have a criminal record once we break out of here!" He lifted his head up from his cot pillow and smiled at her. "So, there's a silver lining for you!"

Ochako stared blankly at the prisoner. "Okay, you clearly have a concussion or something. You can't just suggest breaking out of here as if it were as simple as a trip to the market!"

"I mean, not by myself, obviously. I'm in pretty bad shape, for one." The prisoner lifted his sprained arm weakly before dropping it. "Plus, I would want to help you get out of here as well. It seems pretty clear to me that you don't deserve to be stuck in here. And it's not like I belong in here anyway, I broke in here with a little help, getting out shouldn't be much harder than that."

.............................. "Did you just say you broke _in_ here?" 

".......ummmmm..." He looked away, a little embarrassed. "....yeah. I, uh... I did." He winced as he said it. "I know it was a little reckless-"

"A little?!"

"-but there was something I needed to know and I could only get that information here. I know it was foolish, but..." His expression was determined, and he pulled out a small notebook from his pants pocket. "It was vital that I get in here as soon as possible to get this." 

Ochako couldn't lie, she was simultaneously impressed and appalled at this mysterious masked man. Okay, she couldn't just keep calling him things like that in her head. "Who _are_ you? Why would you do something like this?"

The prisoner slowly sat up to look her directly in the eyes. "Names are a bad idea here. I don't want to get tracked down, and you don't want to be known as an escaped prisoner. I'm just a Reckless Journalist who gets in over his head a lot. But you can call me Deku."

"Deku..." She tried the name out, weighing it on her tongue. She liked it. "I think it sounds kinda cute!"

Deku visibly froze. She suspected if he weren't wearing that mask, she would see a very red face. "D-Deku it is, then! What should I call you?"

She thought about it. She'd never had cause to use an alias before, and even though she could have picked anything at random, she wanted it to be meaningful. Then she recalled a moment when she was little. She was about four years old and had asked why things don't fly up into the sky, and her father had explained that there was a force that held everything on the planet in a big hug, and it was called gravity. Ochako, being little and very affectionate, immediately wrapped her arms around her father's legs. He picked her up and hugged her close. "Hehe, we're a gravitational little family, aren't we Ochako?"

That memory stuck with her even now, and it made her decide. "Call me Uravity."

Deku smiled at her. "Uravity, then. I'm glad to have met you." That smile was as bright as the sun that Ochako had left behind to come here. Her heart was pounding like a drum seeing it, and she squeaked before flinging his shabby black cloak over him and rushing over to her cot, burying her face in its pillow. She muttered some excuse about getting some rest when Deku asked what was wrong.

'Come on, Ochako, you aren't here for this! You're trying to help your parents out, not crushing on boys! Especially not in _jail_ of all places!' 

She rolled over to face the ceiling, glancing at Deku. He was so... certain that things would work out. That he'd be able to get them both out of here. That she could even somehow escape from prison without becoming a wanted criminal! She hadn't known Deku for longer than he's been in this cell, but she was willing to put her faith in him.

For the first time since she came to London, she was starting to have hope.

**Author's Note:**

> [You have gained a new quality: Nightmares] 
> 
> Crap, it really is driving me insane


End file.
